Snape's Birthday
by Sivol
Summary: IT'S SO FLUFFY I'M GONNA DIE! No but really, this is like fluff city, if you're not in the mood for complete ooc cotton candy fluff, then don't read it. Snape is turning 50 and he's facing what could be the 3rd worst day of his life.


This was quite possibly among the top 3 worst days of Snape's life, seconded only by the day he'd found out of Lily's death, and thirded by the day he found out that he would have to serve the Dark Lord as a spy until one of them died. Today was the day he was turning 50.

The realization that he had lived for half a century had hit him like a ton of bricks. Not only was he officially old enough to be his entire student body's grandfather, he was starting to see grey hairs. Well at least the hair was only beginning to streak on the sides. He had been perfectly oblivious until one of those rotten little cretins had decided to point it out, today of all days. It was official; he was getting old.

As per tradition around the castle, Dumbledore stayed with him during the evening hours of his birthday. He refused to do as the rest of the staff did and take the day off, instead choosing to teach. The students weren't even faintly aware that today was his birthday; they instead took the brunt of his anger in point reductions and detention frequencies to mean that it was likely the anniversary of someone's death that had been close to him.

Dumbledore arrived at 8pm, precisely on schedule, with a bottle of his brother's finest scotch and two tumblers in hand. He offered one to Snape and poured them both some of the mouthwatering concoction that the two only drank twice a year. "My boy, before we delve into tonight's chess game, I fear I must let you know that we will have to cut tonight's pleasantries short."

Snape's eyebrows shot up in surprise. Along with being one of the few humans alive that Snape would trust to let his guard down around, Albus was also known for his standing 2 decade long promise to spend the evening with Severus, and unless the school was in peril, he would never cancel the evening or cut it short. Snape rationalized this for a moment. "Should I call on the centaurs to enact a defense protocol?"

Albus chuckled a moment and shook his head. "Oh no, nothing like that is necessary. I'm afraid it's the board, they've scheduled an interview with me and my Deputy Headmistress. Minerva isn't able to make it at the moment though, as she's recently been taken into the infirmary with a broken arm. It seems our young Mr. Wright had flown right into her on his broom." He explained solemnly. He smiled once more. "Of course Madame Pomfrey has her right as rain, but she insists on keeping Minerva in her wing for observation tonight. You know how finicky she gets. That leaves you as acting Deputy Headmaster, so I'm afraid that you shall have to bear the brunt of this meeting as well." He took a drink of his scotch and sighed, running his fingers through his beard as he did when he was worried. "I am dreadfully sorry that this had to fall on your birthday."

Severus frowned and took a sip of his own drink, eying the man warily. "Why would the board request an interview with you at this time of night?"

Albus ran his fingers through his beard yet again, slumping against the back of the chair. "It seems that our newly elected Malfoy Jr. has heard complaint of my sanity through his young cousin over the fiasco at lunch today. He's demanded an interview as soon as possible to assess the situation."

Severus groaned and leaned back in his chair as well. "And here I'd had such high hopes for him and his career, yet he goes and does something his father would have done. Merlin's sake, I hope the boy doesn't carry on the lifelong obsession with getting you sacked."

Albus gave a small smile and patted Severus on the shoulder. "Again, I'm sorry to drag you through this today of all days, however I do need an acting Deputy Headmaster in Minerva's absence, and you are the next in line. We are supposed to be meeting them at the Hog's Head in 15 minutes; I assume we can bring the scotch and celebrate over there afterwards?"

"Must we?" Snape asked a tone of disdain present in his voice. "I'd rather spend as much time as I can away from drunken ingrates who've lost track of their life. I do enough of that spending time on my own."

"I suppose you can come back to the school afterward if you must, however I will probably be there until midnight. You do know how Aberforth gets when he gets face-time with me." He made a chatting motion with his hand and the two men nodded in unison.

"I can go out to the forbidden forest and pick some moonseed since it is a full moon out." He smiled faintly to himself. "It's not often I can pick potion ingredients on the full moon on my birthday."

The men agreed and soon they were off, Severus with an armload of papers to scan over whilst whoever Malfoy had sent to interview Dumbledore did so. Snape shook his head silently to himself, his disappointing in the blonde rising. He'd hoped that by his influence and teachings in private as the boy's godfather that he would have grown into a decent human being, but apparently it seemed his birth father's influence was too strong.

-x-x-x-

Severus steadied himself in front of the door at the Hog's Head. He raised his empty hand and rubbed at his temples, preparing to have to drown out drunken rambling of patrons around them. As usual Aberforth has some god-awful music playing, this time it sounded like some kind of ancient Egyptian-current Indian mix. Whatever it was, it wasn't his first choice for bar-crawlers.

Albus opened the door and as Snape walked in he was suddenly bombarded with the sound of at least 8 people shouting 'Surprise' at him. He tensed up in shock and within a second he had his wand gripped tightly in his hand and an offensive-defensive combination spell that hadn't made the books at Hogwarts yet was on the tip of his tongue. It took a moment to register that he was surrounded by part of the staff of Hogwarts; Minerva, Flitwick, Hagrid, Harry, who was now teaching Muggle Studies, and Lupin, who was back on Defense Against the Dark Arts, but Draco was there as well, standing front and center holding a cake with the newly appointed secondary Medi-Witch, Luna Lovegood to his right holding a rather large box with holes cut in the top and a bright green bow. "What…." Was all the dumbfounded man could muster.

Luna pushed the box towards the man. "Maybe you could set down your papers to get the present, Professor." She called serenely, peeking over the top of the rather large obstruction.

Snape busied himself, completely thrown off guard and trying to figure out what to do in this situation. He'd never had a surprise party before; he'd never had the friends to throw him one. He wondered now if this were a plot of Dumbledore's where the old coot had hired people to make him feel better about himself.

As though the old man read his mind, the explanation flew from his mouth. "I recalled you recently saying in passing that you weren't even sure if anyone would show up at your funeral since you didn't have any companionship with anyone, and I realized that you still believed yourself to be uncared for without friends. My boy, I do realize that you've led such a solitary life, but you must realize that-"

The box jumped lightly, nearly falling into Snape's arms and he held the shifting cube trying to remain as emotionless as he possibly could. Whatever it was in here, it was living, that much he was sure. Luna cleared her throat a moment and took the attention. "Perhaps you could open the present first? I'm sure it's a bit cramped in there." She suggested.

Albus chuckled once more and continued on swiftly. "You must realize that you do have some who appreciate you. Now on to the present my boy, we all chipped in to get it."

Severus spent most of his time holding his breath – a technique that he'd discovered keeps his stoic demeanor up – and opened the box, unsure of what would jump out at him. It was a sudden brown dog's head, all wide-eyed and curious. He saw the bright splash of red on its neck; a bow attached to its collar. Soon another splash, this time blue, and up with it came another head, followed by yet another and a green bow. A puppy the size of a fully-grown Pomeranian jumped out on him, with three excited heads sniffing the man's face and pawing at his chest. Around its stomach was a yellow ribbon, and a card saying the Cerberus pup was one of Fluffy's own. It explained that the group had banded together to pay for the breeding stud to get him the puppy that he could raise as his own. Snape finally let himself breathe, and with that escape of air came a corner of his mouth twitching up and a look that nobody could really place, but they knew it had to be somewhat happy.

Next, Draco came up with the cake, and honestly it looked like a child had tried to put it together with an easy-bake oven and forgot to let it cool before putting icing on it. "I wanted to try to make up for the lie we had to come up with to get you here, because I know you must have been really disappointed in me, so I tried to bake you a cake but I'm afraid it came out a bit… off. I suppose that's what I get for not letting a house elf help me. Sorry."

Snape nodded to the table as the implacable look on his face grew, and Draco moved to set the cake down there. "No need to apologize, Draco, it-ha-" He let out a short, semi-disbelieving look and cleared his throat. "-it's wonderful."

Albus rounded up some butterbeer for everyone and one by one, the party goers would go and hand Snape a card and let him read it in the corner with the puppy curled in his lap while he absent-mindedly stroked its fur.

-x-x-x-

Lupin's card detailed his thanks to the man for providing him with Wolfsbane all of these years, despite the trauma he knew he had caused the man as a teenager. It went on to say that he had considered Snape to be a friend after their disputes surrounding Sirius had been cleared, and that he was sorry to have missed out on so much of the life of a truly intelligent person and from what he heard, such a fierce chess rival.

Minerva's told the man that while she did see him as completely overbearing in his professional life, she valued his wit and didn't mind having a threat like, 'Detention with Snape' to hold over the children should they disobey. It also said that she hoped he wasn't planning on retiring early, as she didn't know what she would do without someone there to talk sense into Albus when he went off on another one of his grand schemes.

Hagrid's was short and simple, thanking him for not banding together against him with some of the other staff as he'd expected the man to when he first went on teaching Care of Magical Creatures there. It ended with a promise that his door was always open if he needed him for something CoMC related, or to intimidate anyone with his size.

Luna's had stated that he reminded her of the elusive winged kwibat – a creature that he'd never heard of that was apparently more of a magical creature cousin to the wombat than a flying bat – as they were both so incredibly stubborn. It continued to urge him to allow her to keep him for observation after an incident instead of going back to his room at first chance, and assured him that she would listen to his concerns and compromise instead of forcing him to take what she shoved at him.

Flitwick's card thanked him for treating the man like a person and like everyone else instead of like a creature, explaining how uncommon that was for him. It told him that the charms professor didn't mind the man's snark and his fire, even when it was directed at him, because in a world where even his students looked down on him, both figuratively and literally for being 1/4th goblin, it was nice to be treated just like everyone else for a change.

Albus' card was, as always, a silly little pop-up card with springy little folded flap that undoubtedly held the recipe for another exotic potion that he'd found through one of his many contacts in other countries.

Draco's card was a bit longer, containing a formal apology for his actions as a teenager, a thank-you paragraph for the man's teachings throughout his childhood as his god-father, and a statement that the young man needed to speak with him after the party about something he wasn't sure how to explain, but insisting that it was incredibly important and to be prepared as apparently Potter was joining them for this conversation as well.

Harry's card simply stated that he couldn't think of what to say, because 'thank you' kept running through his mind for the plethora of times that the man had saved him, risking his very life in some cases, and for risking his life daily to act as a spy for the light. It also mentioned the upcoming meeting with Draco and held the place; the rock by the lake.

-x-x-x-

Snape didn't do much mingling throughout the night. He primarily stayed in his corner; trying to think of a name for the puppy and watching everyone else interact. He had no idea how to act in this situation, having had no experience with birthday parties, gifts, and friends, and it seemed as though everyone were comfortable with him not being a social butterfly.

Every so often one or two people would come over to speak with him, and he thanked his lucky stars that none of them wanted to create awkward tension by talking about their cards. They all just wanted to know things about him that he'd never been willing to share before; things like his favorite color, which was surprisingly orange, his favorite potion ingredient, which was without a doubt aconite, his favorite food, which was his mother's homemade sugar cookies, and so on. They were essentially getting to know the man, and he allowed it.

He was no longer a spy; he had nothing really to keep hidden from the world anymore so he allowed himself to open up. He found that most of these people were more intelligent than he'd given them credit for, and even a few that he might invite alongside him over Winter Holidays to share in the utterly unique experience of Christmas in the muggle world that most of them had never seen. Perhaps one a year, as he feared he wouldn't be able to handle them all at the same time, asking countless questions of various muggle items.

After the party had cleared out and it was rounding about 10:30, he made his way back to Hogwarts and to the lake where Draco and Potter and insisted on meeting him. Whatever they were planning it couldn't have been good, especially with how the evening had went thus far. It had been far too pleasant for something not to come along and absolutely ruin things.

Draco and Harry were already there, leaning against the rock and making shapes from the clouds that passed in the light of the full moon. When they noticed Snape's arrival, they straightened up and Draco started. He clasped his hands together and thought for a moment, trying to figure out how to phrase things. "As you know for the last year I've had a consort that I've kept anonymous from everyone." Snape nodded and raised an eyebrow as the young man continued. "Well, that consort has been Harry." He paused to let that sink in for a moment. "We decided to keep things anonymous so that he could have a private life until the buzz died down, and we think that it's finally died down enough to go public with our relationship."

Harry smiled awkwardly and grabbed on to Draco's hand. "And we figured that since you're closest to him, you should know first. Since I don't really have someone like that in my life, you're about the only person we wanted to tell before we went public."

Snape cleared his throat and ruffled the fur of the sleepy dog beside him as it dozed off since it had not been walking around in minutes. "While I admire your ability to get past your childhood rivalry and your willingness to work together, I feel that you're not telling me everything."

"That's because we're not." Draco said, clenching Harry's hand. "I have no idea how you're going to react to this, and before you ask no we're not getting married, but I have somewhat of a secret that I've been meaning to tell you for the last- ohh ten years of my life." He cleared his throat again and cracked his neck, his face showing his nervous eyes flitting around from one thing to the next before finally landing on the man. "I have a bit of a crush on you- always have really since I figured out how crushes work; I was about 15."

"And we've talked about it and while I never so much had a crush on you, I am certainly willing to try something before automatically dismissing the idea, and to be quite honest, when I think about it, it doesn't sound that bad what with the way we've gotten alone the last 2 years; once you stopped treating me like a child and all." Harry added.

"So we thought that perhaps, if you weren't completely repulsed by the idea, that maybe you'd like to, well, to join our relationship. Yes, it's not entirely common, but it's not so uncommon either, and we really would enjoy your companionship." Draco said, trying to remain as tactful as he could in the event of a total rejection.

"Of course, I don't play chess, I was never really any good at it, s'more Ron's department." Harry added.

They paused and when Snape noticed they were looking to him expectantly he realized he should probably give them an answer. He thought it over quickly in his head; on the one hand he wasn't getting any younger, and he had two perfectly willing companions who wished to take on a romantic aspect in their lives with him, and on the other hand this could all be some cruel joke. "How do I know that you're serious and not setting me up for something?" Severus asked warily.

Draco slumped his head and shoulders, and then glanced to Harry. "I told you he would think something like that. Get the truth serum."

Harry rummaged around in his cloak pocket and retrieved the serum, letting Snape test it for authenticity and dosing the two young men with it. After they assured Snape to his satisfaction that they were serious and this wasn't some form trickery or deceit, the man sat there, dumbfounded for the second time that day, though he dared not show it.

"I… suppose that I could… try." He managed, wondering if he were going to regret this later. "But if you even for a second expect me to become a domesticated sap, you've another thing coming."

Draco smirked and shook his head. "No, but we do expect you not to get too grumpy when we try to be romantic."

Harry leaned in and faux-whispered. "He's a sucker for candlelit dinners and the rose petal bathwater treatment. You never know when he's going to give you one."

"Speaking of dinner-" Draco stated, pointing his wand to the side and revealing a path of petals leading off to a picnic table just near the lake, hidden by trees and bushes. "-I had a house elf prepare a proper cake and pu- Harry… why is my cake on that table?"

Harry grinned. "I know you don't see it Draco, but really that cake is probably more meaningful to him than something an elf would whip up on command." He said, nudging the young man in the arm.

"Indeed it is." Severus whispered, following the two towards the table and the half-tipping cake with the melted frosting.

This was quite possibly among the top 3 best days of Snape's life, seconded only by the day he and Lily had met, and thirded by the day his mother and father took him to the zoo for the very first time as a family when he was 6. Today was the day he was turning 50.


End file.
